Why Obama wouldn’t be elected here

Mely Kiyak
Frankfurter Rundschau

Everyone says that Germans would vote for Barack Obama if they could—but it’s not true, said Mely Kiyak. Sure, they’d elect Obama president of the United States if they could. But it’s highly unlikely that they’d choose him, or any minority person, as their own leader. After all, Germany has a sizable Turkish minority, but hardly any Turkish politicians—and most of those are in the far-left Green Party. “Has anyone ever heard of a Turkish mayor?” Most Germans would be appalled at the very idea. “Germans prefer to applaud the social achievements of other countries.” They look at other countries’ protest marches and seethe with indignation for the downtrodden. Yet here at home, nobody would support such a movement. To Germans, integration doesn’t mean that political parties should reach out to Turks and appoint them to high office. Rather, it means “that Turks should learn to sunbathe topless and eat sausages.”